ROMAN COIN

72

Gold aureus of Vespasian (AD 69-79), struck in Antioch, AD 72-3. The reverse, IVSTITIA AVG is unpublished. RIC II, 2nd ed, p. 176, issue as of no. 1543.An aureus of this type is mentioned in BMC II, p. 75, no. *. This coin is published in the Revue Belge de Numismatique 1882, p. 403. However, this coin was from a large collection housed in Lyon which was largely melted down during the French Revolution, c. 1793. This recent discovery appears to confirm the veracity of the original example.More recent research shows that portrait on the coin is very similar to an aureus in the Didcot hoard (no. 30) which was published in Coin Hoards from Roman Britain X, pp. 95 & 97, no. 30. Furthermore, another Eastern Mint (Judaea) aureus was found at Finstock in Oxfordshire in the 19th century (Bland and Loriot no. 490). This means that three Eastern mint aurei of Vespasian have been found in Britain.An image of this coin has been shown to Ian Carradice (author of the recent RIC volume on the Flavians), who suggests the above attribution.